Excessive consumption of common salt (common salt and cooking salt consist substantially of sodium chloride), in particular in Western nutrition, contributes to an increased incidence of high blood pressure in the population. Elevated blood pressure can trigger or promote diseases, in particular cardiovascular diseases (cf. also N. Murray, Food Processing 2004 (May), pages 21-22).
On the other hand, the salty taste, which is caused in particular by common salt, is very important for the taste selection of food and luxury food products. In sensory tests, the saltier variant is frequently preferred. In addition, common salt serves as a masking agent for bitter taste impressions (Keast, Breslin and Beauchamp, Chimia 2001, 55 (Book 5), pages 441-447) and/or as a general flavor enhancer and is therefore used in a large number of primarily non-salty food and luxury food products.
It is known that a reduction in the amount of common salt in a food product often changes the overall sensory profile of this food product. In certain traditional food and luxury food products such as raw sausage or bread, the salt content can be significantly lowered without losing much of the flavor (for example Meat Science 2005, 70 (Book 3), pages 531-541). In other, less traditional applications such as ready-made soup or other ready meals and also snacks, lowering the salt content is, on the other hand, generally difficult, as the salt content was in many cases optimized in advance for the flavor of the finished products.
From the point of view of health, it is desirable to limit the daily intake of common salt and in particular of sodium ions. However, in this case, the flavor deficits caused by the reduction of common salt are to be substantially avoided to preserve the preference for the food and/or luxury food product.
There have already been described a plurality of substances as common salt-reducing agents (referred to hereinafter as “salt substitutes”), i.e. agents which allow the amount of common salt in food products to be reduced, without accordingly reducing the salty flavor of the food product. One of the oldest methods is the replacement of sodium chloride with potassium chloride.
In a relatively recent publication (U.S. Pat. No. 6,541,050), mixtures of various salts (potassium chloride and other sulfates and chlorides) are proposed to solve the problem.
WO 2007/045566 discloses as a salt substitute specific mixtures having a salty flavor, based on (a) one or more physiologically acceptable inorganic salts which are not sodium chloride and are preferably sodium-free, (b) one or more monovalent or polyvalent salts of polybasic food acids and (c) one or more amino acids suitable for nutrition or salts thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,091 discloses the salt-enhancing effect of specific pyrazine derivatives, facilitating a reduction of the common salt content in edible preparations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,862 describes a common salt-containing salt substitute in granular form. In said document there is first prepared a carbohydrate which is desweetened, preferably with lactisole, (for example desweetened crystalline sugar), which serves as the core material. In a fluidized bed, this desweetened core material is subsequently brought into contact with a coating solution containing common salt, for example in the form of a 20% by weight aqueous solution, and dried. In this way, according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,862, there is obtained a salty-tasting granular material which is sensorially similar to natural common salt. As the salty-tasting granular material according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,862 is prepared by means of a fluidized bed drying process, the procedure is comparatively long and cost-intensive. In addition, the step of desweetening the sweet core material used, which has to be carried out to prevent the salty taste from becoming impaired or dominated, in particular by remaining sweet aspects, is a further complex process step.
US 2008/0085360 proposes for salt reduction a powder mixture comprising substantially sodium chloride and a modified (for example citric acid) chloride salt which is not sodium chloride and is applied to an excipient (such as maltodextrin).
The primary object of the present invention is the provision of a salty-tasting composition as a salt substitute, which allows the amount of sodium chloride [to be reduced] with (approximately) the same salty taste and preferably without other significant losses of flavor, a reduction of the content of sodium chloride by up to 60% by weight being striven for. Furthermore, the process for preparing compositions of this type should be simple, short and economical.